The Place Where the Heart Lingers (2)
I figured there had to be something in the final room. While I’m quite skilled at drastically shifting my attitude to suit the person I’m with, I’m not as good at hiding things about my true self. Maybe it’s just that I don’t have the energy to manage my expressions even for a young girl. Regardless, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
Perhaps it was a reward for maintaining my focus even after finding the loot, but I spotted a wire trap right in front of the door. It was a basic setup: if you tripped the wire, the catch would release, dumping a bucket on your head. If I had checked above, I would have noticed it instantly, but the ceiling was high enough that I hadn’t even thought to look up. It was a structure you could just avoid by not touching it, but I saw it as a good opportunity to try my hand at disarming it.
The easiest way to break such a mechanism is to keep the wire from unspooling. I wrapped the long, loose wire—which looked like it had been left there on purpose—around the catch several times and secured it tightly. Even with my gloves on, I could feel the tension pressing into my fingers. If I’d been barehanded, I definitely would have been cut. "How’s that? Did I do well?" I turned to look at the protagonist. He made a "pfft" sound and turned his head away. If you’re going to be my guardian, the least you could do is watch me properly instead of holding back laughter.
I pressed my ear against the door and heard a faint sound. A light, clattering noise, like stones rolling on stone. Given the overlapping echoes, there was definitely more than one. Since the door didn’t have a keyhole, there was no way to peek inside. There was only one option left: whether or not to use the scroll. It’s only polite to use a gift given to you right in front of the giver.
I tucked the staff under my left arm and switched the torch to my right hand. "Alright. Let’s go." I kicked the door, and the rusted hinges shrieked as it swung open.
I scanned the situation with a quick glance. The room was smaller than the previous one, but still large, and the ceiling wasn't particularly high. The source of the clattering was a pair of skeletons. There were two of them. The distance was quite significant—roughly seven meters, at a guess. I didn’t know how strong a skeleton was, but since this was a training dungeon, they couldn’t be that tough. The problem was that the back of the room was shrouded in darkness, so I couldn’t tell what else might be hiding there. Also, if I wanted to use the staff I’d brought as a weapon, I couldn’t fight while holding the torch.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I tossed the torch aside. The floor wasn’t wet, and a resin-coated torch should hold up just fine. As expected, the torch kept its brightness even after bouncing a few times on the floor. There were no flammable materials around, so there was no risk of the fire spreading. If there were more skeletons in the shadows, I’d lure them into range to fight. Throwing the light source too far away would be counterproductive if the enemies ended up with their backs to the light. Besides, I had the advantage of the staff as a weapon.
The skeletons’ reactions were slow, but their movements were faster than I’d anticipated. I pulled out the scroll, aimed calmly, and tore it in half. The two pieces of the scroll erupted into a bluish, pale light.
Wait, what is this? How do I use it? I thought it would just fly off the moment I tore it, but I guess not? Even as I panicked, the enemies were closing in. I had to do something. I felt a sharp pain in both hands. My fingertips, where the mana had gathered, were the most painful, and the ache traveled up my arms, fading near my shoulder blades. It was a pain I remembered—similar to the agony I felt during the imprinting process, though much less intense.
Was this what they called "mana nerves"? I felt as though the mana nerves inside my body were connected to the pale blue light at my extremities. I might be able to do this.
I stretched both hands forward and slowly pulled my right hand back, as if drawing an invisible bow. If it was named Mana Arrow, this kind of operation should be possible. I felt mana swirling in my right hand. Now. The moment I released the imaginary bowstring, the light shot forward. The room brightened momentarily as the light traced its trajectory. The skeleton whose chest had been blown away by the magic collapsed with a light clatter. I grabbed the staff I’d dropped and quickly stabbed the other skeleton. The tip of the staff pierced the gap between its lower jawbone, sending the skull flying. I twisted my waist to the right and struck the headless torso with the other end of the staff. The spine snapped, and the body crumbled into a heap.
"I... I did it."
As the tension faded, my strength drained away. Beads of sweat had formed on my forehead. From what I’d glimpsed when the room brightened, there were no more enemies. I glanced over at the protagonist. He had a stunned expression on his face.
There were no other passages leading anywhere else in this room, nor were there any special rewards. Inside a box sitting alone in the corner, there was just a scrap of old paper with the words "Congratulations" written on it and a small pouch containing a bit of money. I heard that these were traces from the days when this place was used for qualification exams. Now, it had been relegated to a training dungeon, having given up its spot to more suitable ones. It seemed like every inch of this place had been touched by human hands from start to finish. Still, it was fun. I suppose you could say the adventures I’d only imagined as a child had become reality. It was the most "fantasy" experience I’d ever had. Come to think of it, the protagonist had said we should eat out to celebrate today. For me, that might be the biggest reward of all.
"Shall we put in some effort and prepare a luxurious dinner tonight?" Ameryel said when she saw me return to the temple. That sounded good, but what happened to eating out? As I stood there blankly, Ameryel brought me a mirror. My face was covered in a large smudge that would have looked right at home on a panda. No wonder everyone I’d passed, starting with the guards, had been laughing.
"I guess you got caught in a trap?" she said, her expression joyful, not even trying to hide her amusement. I could feel my face turning red. In my frustration, I looked for the protagonist, but he had disappeared somewhere. When I asked Ameryel, she replied, "He said eating out wouldn't be possible, so he was going to head off first?"
He’d run away.
As soon as I returned to the inn room, I dove onto the bed. What on earth happened today? I thought back to the day’s events. Hazel had kicked the door open with great momentum. She’d even had the staff tucked under her arm from the start, as if she intended to use a scroll right from the get-go. The only things visible to the eye were two skeletons. "Two is hard, but if there are three, run," is a saying passed down among adventurers. According to that maxim, her choice to use the scroll first was the correct one. If you take one out with a magic arrow, the remaining one is easier to handle. It was the textbook behavior of an adventurer: scouting, strategizing, and engaging in combat.
The problem arose afterward. The scroll Hazel used turned into light. The spell recorded on the scroll wasn't Magic Arrow. It was Create Light. A lot of thoughts crossed my mind in that instant. Should I help? She’d learned how to handle a staff over the past few days, but that was just the basics. Furthermore, Hazel had no real combat experience. On top of that, there was the variable that a different spell had been cast. She might be able to manage two skeletons somehow, but in a situation like this, the odds were high that she wouldn't. However, for Hazel to join as a companion, she needed to get used to unexpected situations to some extent. Unarmed skeletons aren't very threatening. Even if she gets hit a few times, it would end with just some pain. In truth, I also wanted to watch how she would respond until the very end. I wanted to see her finish the dungeon on her own.
Just as I was paralyzed by these conflicting feelings, an anomaly occurred. Hazel moved her hands as if drawing an invisible bowstring. Mana moved according to her gestures, and the light magic transformed into a magic arrow. And a perfect Magic Arrow was fired at the skeleton. Following that, she finished it off with the staff she’d been practicing with. It was a battle that certainly deserved a passing grade, but my attention was focused elsewhere. The mid-cast spell conversion. That was impossible. Changing a spell that had already been cast into another was impossible. At least, as far as I knew, it was impossible in the original work.
In the original, Dungeon Age, preparation was required to use magic. Characters capable of using magic had spell slots allocated according to their level, and they had to prepare spells in those slots in advance. They could only use magic by consuming those prepared spells—a concept known as "loaded spells." This rule applied to scrolls as well. If you consumed a spell stored in a Create Light scroll, the effect had to be Create Light. It could never be Magic Arrow.
Did something change while we were going around the dungeon? I opened Hazel’s character sheet.
【Tidiness】 【Darkvision】
Luck: 1
There didn’t seem to be anything that could be the cause. I don’t know. I’d need to compare it to something, but there was nothing to compare it to. Ameryel had no intention of joining the party, so I couldn’t open her sheet. The rogue had stabbed me in the back and run away. The mage was away, so I couldn’t meet her yet. I didn’t even know where to go to find the warrior. In the first place, Hazel wasn’t even a playable character, so I didn’t know if a comparison would even be possible.
I buried my head in my pillow. I had a long way to go.